I’m very excited and honored to be collaborating with Gaia Creams for this incredible giveaway! A few months ago, I shared my love for their Gaia Creams Chia & Peach Kernel serum (here) and now you have a chance to try their wonderful products. If you haven’t had the occasion so far, now is the time 🙂 But beyond the high-quality of the products, Gaia Creams stand out for their eco philosophy and strong ethic.Based in the UK, Gaia Creams are strong supporters of fair trade and refuse to use palm oil, beeswax, GMO’s and water. Vegan and cruelty free, they support several organizations and through this giveaway, they wanted to highlight the dark side of the pharmaceutical and cosmetic industry, i.e the use of vivisection.

Currently on the Gaia Cream’s main page, you’ll notice a little banner which says “Stop vivisection”. Anna McGurran, the wonderful founder of Gaia Creams, is a passionate and compassionate woman, standing firmly against animal cruelty and wanted me via this giveaway to bring a little more attention to the cruel fate of animals, particularly dogs in lab testings. The number of dogs, – especially Beagles – bred solely for testing purposes keeps rising. Beagles are the dog breed most often used for lab use, because of their average height and docile nature. Over 3,000 dogs are used in animal tests in the UK every year, and 90,000 across the European Union and US. In the past couple of months, articles have covered the terrible fate of factory-bred Beagles used as surrogates for direct human testings. While certain countries have banned animal testing for cosmetic purposes, it’s still very much a heart-wrenching reality. Research beagles are obtained directly from commercial breeders who solely breed dogs to sell to scientific institutions. In the UK, there are two licensed Beagle breeding facilities, B&K Universal and Harlan. These breeders prepare the dogs so they are ready to be experimented on and proceed to sell them to labs and research units. Breeding bitches are kept alive to give birth but are killed once they are of no more use to the breeder. Beagles are largely used in toxicity tests, being force fed the substance in capsules or via plastic tubes inserted through their mouths directly into their stomachs. Several horrible pictures online also show Beagles strapped into a harness for hours, while substances are pumped into their bloodstream. Locked in cages, barely fed, forced to endure cruel experiments, and ultimately killed during these awful testings – becoming ill from all the adverse effects of drugs and experiments, or put down for their old age.

There are several online petitions and if you want more informations, you can go check out the European initiative Stop vivisection (here), The Rescue Beagle project, which longs to rescue Beagles used in laboratory and find them a loving home (here).
In the UK, there are organizations trying to shut down permanently the two Beagles factory (here) and there’s the petition “Abolish the breeding for & use of Beagles for animal experimentation in the UK” (here)

The giveaway

Beauty should not come with compromises and certainly not at any costs. This is the message behind Gaia Creams. For this giveaway, Gaia Creams will be generously donating three30ml Chia, Flax & Hemp | Omega 369 Powerblend’ Raw Face & Body Creams. Even better, they will be freshly made for the winners, with a personalized label. 3 winners will be randomly selected via Rafflecopter

Terms & conditions:

Due to certain shipping restrictions, this giveaway will be Europe only. (EU/NON-EU)

Fill the Rafflecopter form

No mandatory fields, however each one will increase yor chances of winning

The giveaway will last a week from August to 21 to August 28 , the winners will be contacted by email and the prizes will be sent by Gaia Creams. Winners will have 48 hours to reply, otherwise new winner(s) will be selected.
Good luck everyone!
Take care,

Forgot to mention – I am aware of animal testing and one of the many advantages of natural organic beauty products is that animal testing is not necessary. I am so glad this petition is happening and happy to be able to be a part of it!

Oh this is so heartbreaking to read being a dog lover and dog owner…I've known about beagles often being the "preferred" breed to experiment and I think more awareness needs to be spread so this horrible act can be done away with once and for all, for all animals for that matter. I don't understand why we humans do this…just cos something was tested on an animal isn't going to reassure me that an ingredient or product is safe and why should these poor innocent animals be made to pay this price??? Totally mind-boggling and it really breaks my heart thinking of animals being locked up in cages their whole lives, strapped to weird unnatural contraptions and then to be discarded when they're no longer needed. I think Saskia would prefer it if I didn't smooch her as much as I do (can't help it, she's too smoochable!) but rather that I say! I think this is a wonderful initiative together with Gaia Creams, well done Liz. xx

They were trying to get permission to build a dog farm near where I live to breed dogs for vivisection but fortunately there were enough protests for the council to stop it 🙂I've lost track of the number of petitions I've signed. NO animal deserves this regardless of species.

It's always a very emotive issue animal testing, with the Europe wide ban coming in to force I am shocked at the idea of it increasing and it is something I am going to research some more, there is still a huge amount of animal testing that happens for the pharmaceutical business and whilst I certainly don't condone it I think beauty and medicine testing need to be distinguished and different criteria apply in terms of ethics and conduct. Lovely giveaway Liz, Anne's products have been on my list to try for some time I love her ingredients and ethics Xx

I can't believe it's on the increase. I think as a nation of animal lovers this has to be brought again to the attention of the masses. I would rather buy a more expensive ethical product than anything tested on animals, any time